RELATED CASE
U.S. application Ser. No. 501,524 filed Aug. 29, 1974 discloses certain aspects of the present invention.
This invention relates to ethylene-carbon monoxide and more particularly to an improved process for preparing ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers.
Ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers have been known for several years and have been of considerable interest because of their potential value as engineering plastics. Ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers having high carbon monoxide contents, particularly 40% or more, are especially interesting because they possess high melting points and other superior properties which would make them very suitable for many engineering applications. Ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers are also of interest since carbon monoxide is a very inexpensive by-product obtained in the manufacture of steel and is, therefore, unlike most other monomeric materials used in the production of synthetic polymers, not solely derived from petroleum. In spite of the great potential of these copolymers, their development has been slow and they have not yet gained commercial acceptance. The principal reason for this is that no commercially feasible process for their production has been developed.
The preparation of high molecular weight ethylene carbon-monoxide copolymers has been accomplished by gamma radiation initiation but this method requires the use of expensive equipment, high pressures, and inordinantly long reaction times. Furthermore, polymer produced by this method may be partially cross-linked and, thus, very difficult to process. Since chemical catalysis offers more advantages and fewer hazards than radiation initiation, considerable effort has been made to develop useful chemical catalytic processes for the production of ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers.
Among the more promising chemical catalytic processes for the preparation of these polymers are those employing organic peroxide compounds as catalysts. U.S. Pat. No. 2,495,286, issued to Brubaker, is typical of the patents which disclose the use of organic peroxides as catalysts for the preparation of ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers. One of the drawbacks of the use of organic peroxide compounds as catalysts in the preparation of ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers is that the total polymer yield is often quite low. Since low yield reduces the feasibility of commercial processes, it would be highly desirable to develop a process for preparing high melting ethylene-carbon monoxide copolymers based on the use of organic peroxide catalysts in which product is obtained in high yield.